Who is ArcoJedi? A life-journeying Christian, ecstatic husband, proud father of four, web guru, all-around geek and Star Wars fanatic. Read these thoughts that he felt were worthwhile. Then wonder why he thought that way.

2014/01/07

I mentioned yesterday that there was once again another "Year in Review" page available on Facebook for 2013. I wrote about the 2012 "Year in Review" when it first came out and in revisiting that post today, I was reminded about why I had the foresight to archive my favorite highlights from that page. If you visit the page I linked to in that post (https://www.facebook.com/yearinreview/), all you'll see is THE MOST RECENT year's review, not the 2012. In other words, it would appear their plan is to update this feature every year with your most memorable moments and the previous year gets replaced. Had I not saved my favorite data / details from that page, it would be lost to me now.

And now I'll wade through 2013's page and pick out stuff that I agree was memorable and important. I honestly recall being more amazed at the automated page for 2012 and this time around I'm pretty unimpressed. But is that a reflection of the feature OR a reflection of my year? I can't give a scientific answer, but I'm going to blame the technology here by default and just leave it at that. Here goes.

The first post highlighted was from the first week of the new year, when I shared my good news about starting my job at Integrity. I'd actually been working there since mid-December but the company blog post with my name and photo hadn't been posted quite yet. It was all pretty cool, but about a week or so later that job opportunity dried up. That happens with contract positions. I did like that job quite a bit, but it wasn't exactly a perfect fit. Not the best note to start with.

One theme in 2013 was paperwork. A few weeks later, I'm complaining about being asked to "fax" something to our mortgage company. This post garnered a lot of debate comments, but I stand by my original statement. It's the 21st Century and no one should be forced to use a fax machine anymore when there are readily available better options. Would you believe that the paperwork was only just accepted and properly processed by same-said mortgage company this past December? This has been going back-and-forth for longer than just this year though so it's not wholly unexpected.

By February 19th there was a job interview option that I was very excited about at Zeis Group. Lots of other things were happening too in my life which made that a crazy dramatic month I'd rather not relive.

I started at ZG on March 6th as an Online Marketing Specialist.

In April, we had another successful family photo shoot with JLL Photography taken downtown. I'll have to share some of these pics later.

In May, I joined the "Biggest Loser" contest at work and dropped quite a few pounds. I won that round actually, ending up just under 250 pounds. I have hovered around that, but continue to lose a little bit at a time. I may have gained a little during the holidays, but I never want to be over 250 again as long as I live.

Other pictures I was tagged in during June include a Dirty Soap Benefit show at the coffee house, the SIDS Run/Walk, and a few more family photos.

The fireworks for July 4th were spectacular. It was especially fun to really enjoy them with Sammy for the first time. I posted this:

My son, age 3, was loving the fireworks and squealing happily at every report and fire flower. This is the highlight of my night. No one is so hipster or jaded they can't at least enjoy fireworks a little, but seeing my son enjoy them for the first time he was really old enough to appreciate them, gave me an all new appreciation of amazing pyrotechnics. Your children show you world in a new way.

In August, we were forced to accept the fact that we were registering our first-born child for ... *gasp* high school! Reese was nervous at first, but I'm really proud and amazed at how well she has adapted to these changes.

This past September, Dirty Soap found even more gigs at a new place called Foam where we fit in really well.

We had another family photo shoot in October and this time JLL took us downtown to the graffiti wall where I'd been once before with DS.

The band also had a new gig place in November at Sonny's in Soulard, which we really impressed for Octoberfest.

And... that's about it. I think I must have subconsciously adapted a more subdued amount of posting on FB in 2013. My life in general has had some really great things happen, but I seem to be playing those moments closer to my chest than I've done previously. If I look at the Friends / Year in Review page, I can see a few other highlights I want to document here. Reese got a medium-to-major part in the Fall Play of DRACULA. She played Flora, who is the maid of the female lead. She ... Well, I have no words I can really use to describe how proud I was of her during those moments. Our friend Heather started a new job as a 4th grade teacher.

And there you have it, Facebook's view on the most important points of 2013. Not wholly extensive, but certainly a few important highlights.